Termite control device



July 16 TERYMI'IE common DEVICE Filed Nov. 27; 1945 Inventor Patented July 16, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TERMITE CONTROL DEVICE Troy F. Childers, Joplin, Mo. Application November 27, 1943, Serial No. 511,973

2 Claims. 1

My invention relates to a device for extermination of termites. There are many different species of termites but this invention is concerned with dealing with those termites only which may occasion,serious damage to woodwork of buildings or to stored articles, including furniture, books, or other articles of plant origin. The common type of destructive house termite of North America includes ground-nesting forms that cannot live without moisture, which they get from the earth. These termites occur practically throughout the United States.

The normal habitat of these termites is in connection with dead wood, old stumps, etc, on which they feed, and in such locations they may establish large colonies containing queens, wingless workers, and soldiers. In spring and fall, males and females, white winged but with black or brown bodies, swarm from the outdoor colonies, or from buildings to which their work has extended, to seek favorable points outdoors for the establishment of new colonies. The swarming, or fiying termites do not attack wood or other articles in houses and must reach the open if they are to be successful in founding new colonies. The descendants of these winged migrants, the white ants' are the destructive members of the colony which shun the light and are concealed behind a protecting shell of wood and are seen only when the wood in which they are working is broken open. The invasion of buildings by termites invariably always has its source from outdoor communities through foraging tunnels made by the workers under the surface of the ground. Thence, chance contacts made with buildings of wood or with the structural wood of masonry buildings supply a rich granary of food for such termites. Entry through basement timbers takes place, although the invasion may not be recognized by the owner'for several years. The worker termites can bridge over stone or concrete foundations, by means of earth like shelter tubes built of earth and wood particles, and they are'able to build buttressed tubes reaching, without lateral support from external source, up from the ground, in the effort to contact with structural timbers. In the type of buildings employing structural wood timbers with concrete foundations, a common means of entry to the timbers is cracks in the concrete used as base for wood joists for basement flooring. Such joists absorb moisture from the concrete foundation with some resulting decay and then, when made accessible through cracks, furnish an ideal start for the termites.

characters represent the same details.

Everyyear it costs property owners considerable sums to replace or repair property which the worker termites have ruined to provide food for their colony. l

The way to stop the damage caused by termites and to keepthem from causing damage is to prevent them from getting into the wood of buildings as by treating the wood in accordance It is universally pose of very completely impregnating the lumber and woodwork in buildings or other structure, with a chemical wood preservative.

Such a. device is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, and the method of using the same described in the following.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is'a side elevation of the device consisting of a container partly in section as attached in position on the wood which is being impregnated,

Figure 2, also in elevation, is a view of the container in reversed position ready for attaching on the wood, and V Figure 3 is a fragmentary section of the portion of the container where the feed tube is secured.

In the different figures the same reference Numeral I0 is a container of any suitable shape and material such as an ordinary tin can and of a capacity of a pint or more for the liquid preservative intended to be injected into the wood. After filling, the container is sealed top and bottom as seen in Figure 2 which represents the same in up-side-down or inoperative position before attaching the same against the wood H.

A strip of metal I2 is soldered to one end of the container and is intended as a knee-bracket when properly bent for securing the container in upright or operating position, see Figure 2,

and the strip is maintained in properpposition by means of a nail I3 or the like.

. 3 V The outer end of the tube is closed by means of a plug of solder I! or the like. A short distance from the outer end of the tube l4 the same is nickedor scored as at 18.

- step is to break off the tube 14 at the nicked por- 1 tion l8 leaving the bore open for the seeping out of liquid from the container for impregnating the wood. The precaution must, however, be

' taken that the container is held in its up-side-' down position shown in Figure 2'an'd also 'by;

dottedflines in Figure 1, until the tube I4 :.,is

fully entered'into the bored hole in the wood.

Unless this procedure is "followed, it will be evident that a great amount of the impregnating liquid would be spilled and go to Waste.

As soon as the tube [4 has been entered fully into the hole and the can, up-side-down, contacts with the wood, the can or container Ill is turned upward as shown, by full lines in Figure 1 and secured in positionby nailing the knee bracket l2 fast to the Wood. The end of the tube 14 having previously beenbroken ofi, as already described, the liquid preservative is-now free, actuated by gravity, to seep into the wood and spread outthrough its capillaries and thoroughly penetrate and permeate all thewood to make the structure unsavory and uninhabitable to the termites and thus save the woodworkfrom initial damage or, ultimate destruction.

"The cross section of the container is'imma'terial' Having described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. A'gravity actuated reversible device in com bination with an object of wood for preserving the wood from the destructive action of termites, said device being adapted respectively for inoperative and operative positions and comprising a closed container for a liquid insecticide, a tube with a flange attached to the yvall of a permanently open outlet near one end of the-container, said tube extending into a hole in said object of ,wood and arranged to cooperate with the wall "structure of said hole to permit said container to be swung about the axis of the tube from one 15 positionto another, a knee-shaped bracket fastened on said end of the container, said bracket -having a-bend directed towards the center of the container and its free shank bent back against the adjacent face of said object with the container in upright position and means securely attaching said shank against the wood object thereby supporting the container firmly: in upright, operati g position on the wood -obj t; :1

2 A gravity-actuated reversible device iorpreserving woodfrom the destructive action of termites, comprising a closed container for a liquid insecticide having an opening therein at one-side near one end, an outlet tube secured in; said opening at one end, and having a flange adjacent to'said end abutting the wall ofthe container around said opening, said tube having its outer end plugged and provided with a frangible portion spaced from said pluggedend, said tube adapted to extendinto a hole in a 'Wood object with the container=in an 'inverted-positionwith the tube uppermost, aftersaid end is brokenoff,

and thenturn in said hole as thencontainer is rotated about the axis of the tubet'o dispose the container in insecticide: supplying positionwith the tube ,at-the bottom to-permit the liquid-insecticide to flow fromthecontainer andthrough the tube from its openend to seep into and per 7 meate the-wood, and a bracket iastened toithe container adjacent tosaid tube and-provided with means for securing the same to the wood with-the container uppermost in an upright position...= a

w 1 TROY F. CHILDERS: 

